It’s been almost amusing to watch a parade of pundit after pundit after pundit speculate as to whether the Democrat Party will emerge as centrists in the lead-up to the 2018 mid-terms. As though eight years of fundamental transformation under Barack Hussein Obama resulted in a political party interested at all in being centrists. Will Democrats campaign as centrists?
Anyway, the question itself is almost without merit?
Why?
Take a look at recent Democrat party history. In 2015, a centrist Democrat ran for that party’s 2016 presidential candidate nomination – then and now I maintain that, had that candidate won the nomination, chances are there would be a Democrat in the Oval Office today. That candidate was Jim Webb. Instead, the Democrat Party’s top contender for the nomination was a socialist from Vermont with real ties to Moscow who ran a populist campaign against Hillary Clinton who rigged the system against Bernie Sanders once she realized 2015 was starting to look a whole lot like 2007.
A populist campaign can only be successful if the populist doing the campaigning has a population of supporters to energize. Bernie Sanders, who has never been a centrist in his life, certainly had – and continues to have – a sizeable base of supporters. His supporters may be nearing 30 and still living at home, or they may still be in their second year of college for the seventh time, but they are certainly out there and not a one of them is a centrist.
The real question ought to be, will Democrats play the role of centrist when they are not if they think it will win elections? It just so happens a democrat in Pittsburgh recently penned a letter that ran in The Washington Post’s “Letters to the Editor” section. It stated:
The July 6 editorial “ICE is the wrong target for outrage” got it exactly right. As the editorial concluded, “It’s that the Trump administration, in its xenophobic zeal, has weaponized [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to go beyond protecting the United States and into the darker realms of oppression.” We Democrats have suffered some discouraging setbacks in recent weeks. However, we must not let that warp our judgment and lash out with self-defeating actions.
Calling for the abolition of ICE is neither good politics nor good governance. It only enrages and solidifies President Trump’s base. Likewise, refusing to serve Mr. Trump’s staff is misguided. Of course, no one can surpass Mr. Trump when it comes to bad manners, bad judgment and maliciousness. But that does not mean that we should stoop to that level. Indeed, it is in our interest not to.
We have a good chance to take back the House in the midterms by being strategic. We can sort out our priorities after the elections. Let’s not take our eyes off the prize. Let’s not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
There you have it folks. “We can sort out our priorities after the elections”. In other words, that ready, fire, aim approach the left takes with everything. “We have a good chance to take back the house in the midterms by being strategic.” In other words, Democrats will put on MAGA hats, denounce fake news, and call the Mueller probe a witch hunt if they think it will earn them votes. “Let’s not take our eyes off the prize”. If you thought “the prize” was solely electoral victory, take a step back and consider what else it means.
The Democrat’s epic loss in 2016 actually had very little to do with Hillary Clinton not being able to move back into the White House. It had a lot to do with continuation of Barack Obama’s fundamental transformation of America. That’s what is at stake for them in the 2018 mid-terms; they’ll stop at nothing to regain lost power.
Image: CCO Creative Commons; https://pixabay.com/en/people-girl-short-hair-pedestrian-2606513/
